Team USA goalie Brandon Maxwell reaches for a puck as Jordan Greenway, left, and Ryan Donato watch during a practice ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics on Friday in Gangneung, South Korea. The NHL’s decision not to make its players available this time has dampened the enthusiasm for what is usually one of the Winter Olympics’ marquee events. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

ANAHEIM — A lot of Olympic-watchers weren’t alive for the 1980 Miracle on Ice, but Brian Gionta was.

He is 39. Two other Team USA teammates are 35 or older. James Wisniewski, formerly a high-minute Ducks defenseman, turns 34 before the Games end.

The goalie, Ryan Zapolski, played most of his stateside hockey in the East Coast Hockey League, for the likes of the Gwinnett Gladiators and the Toledo Walleye, before he signed with Jokerit in the KHL. He’s 31.

No one is begrudging them the thrill of wearing the USA jersey, but this is more like Metamucil On Ice.

The Canadian team features Andrew Ebbett, a former Duck, and Christian Thomas, son of former Duck Steve Thomas, the hero of 2003. It contains Maxim Lapierre, just in case things get too harmonious. Again, a fine opportunity, and not a knock on these hockey lifers who thought they’d sung their final note.

But everywhere else in the Olympics you see the world’s best. In 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014, we saw hockey’s best. It was better than anything else’s best.

When Canada beat the U.S. 3-2 in overtime, eight years ago at high noon in Vancouver, there were All-Stars playing on fourth lines. There were Hall of Famers scrumming on the boards, NHL linemates thrust into combat. Every shift was a symphony.

But the NHL withdrew its players from the Pyeongchang Olympics. It did so for money and convenience. If you ever thought its owners and Commissioner Gary Bettman cared to see how high their game could climb, you have been relieved of your delusion.

The league didn’t make money from the Olympics and it had to deal with a two-week hole in the schedule. Somehow those two factors eclipsed the sight of Sidney Crosby coming off the wall and firing in the winning goal in overtime, sending Canadians into gleeful streets across six time zones.

And yet Ryan Kesler, Bobby Ryan, Zach Parise, Ryan Miller, Joe Pavelski, David Backes, Ryan Suter, Jamie Langenbrunner and the rest of the Americans took the Canadians beyond the horizon. The U.S. also beat them in a preliminary round.

“Definitely one of the best games I ever played in,” Kesler said. “The atmosphere and the intensity were unbelievable.”

Same way in Salt Lake City 16 years ago, when Wayne Gretzky put together a Canadian gold medalist.

Same way in Nagano four years before, when the Czech Republic’s Dominik Hasek somehow linked gymnastics to magic and blanked Canada.

Imagine today. Imagine Connor McDavid and John Tavares for Canada, Auston Matthews and Johnny Gaudreau for the U.S. Or Rickard Rakell for Sweden and Nikita Kucherov for Russia.

The NHL tried to mollify fans with a World Cup competition, which made its modern debut in September 2016. Canada won, if you’re curious. No one expects you to remember.

But if you want to know what makes Kesler laugh, ask him if the World Cup could replace the Olympics, as someone did Friday morning before the Ducks played Edmonton on Friday night.

“They’re not in the same category,” he said.

“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be playing in the Olympics. The league doesn’t want to do that, and yet it sends teams to China. They say they don’t make any money, but if you look at the marketing worldwide, they really do. It’s very disappointing.”

“You’re laying it on the line in the Olympics,” said Cam Fowler, who was on the U.S. team in 2014. “Those games are really intense. But I don’t think it made a huge impact on the quality of hockey I could play when I came back. There are a lot of factors that went into that decision and I don’t pretend to understand them all, but it’s unfortunate for the guys who haven’t played.”

The reality is that the Olympics didn’t affect the rest of the NHL season at all. The Kings had Drew Doughty and Jeff Carter for Canada in 2014, Jonathan Quick and Dustin Brown for the U.S. They came home refreshed, and Doughty told Coach Darryl Sutter that he was now sure the Kings would win the Stanley Cup. Which they did.

Six Chicago Blackhawks played in Vancouver. Four months later they were passing around the Cup.

We’ll judge the juice of this hockey tournament by how often NBC lets us see it. Fortunately, the rest of Pyeongchang will be the best: No quarter-pipes, single axels or scrawny slaloms.

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